Why Cannabis Genetics & Breeding Matter

Mr. Soul

Brothers Grimm Seeds

While studying Nuclear Engineering at a college in Upstate NY, Mr. Soul learned to grow marijuana in a spare room of his apartment. “I read everything about growing marijuana I could get my hands on, but I was especially interested by Robert C. Clark’s ‘Marijuana Botany’”. Mr. Soul sent a letter to the owner of the Super Sativa Seed Club in Amsterdam and after weeks of discussing breeding and genetics, they offered him a job. He became their USA seed distributor to their American customers in 1987. He used his engineering skills to design hydroponic systems and climate control systems for his growing operations. He organized the garden work flow; scheduling and performing all phases of cannabis production; seedlings, mother plants, clones, flowering, harvest, manicuring, drying/curing and seed storage.

These projects became increasingly larger and cultivation was soon his full-time occupation. He became known as “Mr Soul” to the online cannabis community, where he shared growing and breeding information. He was reliably producing 1 pound per kW and delivering 2 pounds of high-grade MJ per month, when he founded The Brothers Grimm Seed Co. in 1996. His breeding projects produced strains of marijuana that are now world-famous, such as Cinderella 99 (C99) and Apollo 13. These marijuana strains were featured in High Times magazine articles among the top 10 most favored varieties of all time and have also been used by other breeders to create numerous award-winning hybrids.

On this episode of The Real Dirt, Chip Baker sits down with the legendary Mr. Soul, cultivator and founder of Brothers Grimm Seed Company. With a colorful background including nuclear engineering studies and years of cultivation which lead to the creation of Brothers Grimm, Mr. Soul is a house hold name in the breeders/genetics side of the cannabis industry.